PGB Board

The board are responsible for representing the views of both tenants/lessees and Landlord Companies. Read below for more information on the board composition.

Sir Peter Luff

Chairman

Sir Peter was first elected as MP for Worcester in 1992 and then for the new Mid Worcestershire seat in 1997. He lives in the country with his wife, Julia. They have two grown-up children.

He was educated at Windsor Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read Economics. He worked from 1977 to 1980 for Conservative cabinet minister Peter (now Lord) Walker. After a period as company secretary of his family’s retail stationery firm, he went on to become head of private office to the former Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath in the early 1980s. He was Special Advisor to Lord Young at DTI in the late 1980s at the time of the Beer Orders. He was also a successful businessman in the corporate communications industry and is an honorary fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

In 1977, Peter was appointed chairman of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee. In 2000, he joined the frontbench as an Opposition Whip. He served as Assistant Chief Whip from 2002 to 2005. From 2005-2012, Peter was Chairman of the influential Business, Innovation & Skills Committee and its predecessors (the Trade & Industry and subsequently Business & Enterprise Committees) when the committee conducted two inquiries into pubcos.

In May 2010 he was appointed Minister for Defence Equipment, Support & Technology, a post he held until September 2012 when he announced he was leaving Parliament at the next election.

He was knighted for public and political service in the 2014 New Year Honours list.
Sir Peter is now Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Bill Sharp

Guild of Master Victualler

Bill is one of the founder member Guild of Master Victualler and often acts as a Parliamentary Representative on matters effecting the industry.
Bill has been long and established history as a working licensee since 1970 and continues to this date to run a leasehold pub in Central London.

Martin Caffrey

Federation of Victuallers Association

Martin came into the industry straight from school at the age of 18 working for a wine and spirit company achieving a diploma from the Wine & Spirit Education trust, progressed through area management with John Smiths Brewery in the South Yorkshire area. Progressed through ranks continuing to do multi-site management, until i joined the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations 5 years ago in 2009 as Operations Director providing guidance to members on Employment law, rent reviews, L&T issues, Liaising with Government on all aspects of the licensed trade . At that time sat on the PIRRS board now the PGB.

Nick Griffin

Brighton & Hove Licensees Association

With a background in retailing, Nick was previously a manager of the Food Hall in Selfridges, Oxford Street, Nick took has been the Managing Director of Pleisure Ltd since the mid ’90’s. In his time he has been part of a team that has won several industry awards and also a personal outstanding contribution award in 2003. As a tenant himself and head of the growing Brighton & Hove Licensees Association, with members throughout the South East he has 20 years of experience of dealing with leasehold and tenancy issues.

Chris Welham

CEO Wadsworth

“Chris is Chief Executive Officer of Wadworth, a regional pub operator and family brewer with 171 tenanted and leased pubs and 47 managed pubs. He was appointed to this role in November 2015 having previously been Managing Director of Spirit Leased, part of Spirit Pub Company where he was also responsible for all property matters for the total Spirit business. He has over 20 years’ experience in the industry having held various senior operations roles in both the tenanted and managed arms of different pub and brewing companies. He is also a Non-Executive industry advisor on the BII Executive Board.”

Mike Clist

CEO British Institute of Innkeeping

Mike Clist became Chief Executive Officer for the British Institute of Innkeeping in April 2016. The BII is the leading professional body representing individuals working across the licensed hospitality industry. Mike has over 38 years’ experience in the pub industry the majority of which has been spent in the Tenanted and Leased sectors. Before joining the BII he was he was the Operations Director for the Tenanted Division of Fuller, Smith & Turner, an independent, vertically integrated family brewer and pub retailer which operates over 360 pubs across south England. He was responsible for the Tenanted and Leased Division of over 200 pubs and was promoted to Director there in 2007.

George Barnes

Property & Services Director

‘George Barnes has worked for Shepherd Neame since 1978 and has been involved in Tenanted operations throughout this period.
He is currently Property & Services Director. George is also a Fellow of BII and a Director of the Institute of Licensing. He is a Chartered Surveyor.

Brigid Simmonds Obe

BRITISH BEER & PUB ASSOCIATION (BBPA)

Brigid Simmonds became Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) in September 2009. The BBPA is the leading body representing Britain’s brewers and pub companies with its members accounting for 95 per cent of the beer brewed in the UK and owning around half of UK pubs. Brigid was previously Chief Executive of the umbrella organisation Business In Sport & Leisure (BISL), from 1992 to 2009, and was also Chairman of the Sport & Recreation Alliance (SRA) between 2005 and 2011. Brigid was elected a Vice-President of the SRA in 2012. She is also a board member of the Tourism Alliance which she recently chaired. Brigid is married with three children and lives in London. She was awarded an OBE for Services to Sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of June 2006.

Kate Nicholls

Chief Executive of the ALMR

Kate Nicholls is Chief Executive of UK Hospitality, the leading trade body representing pubs, bars and casual dining businesses. She has worked with the Association since 1998, initially as an external consultant and subsequently with in-house responsibility for public affairs and communications since 2003. She was appointed Strategic Affairs Director in 2010, to the Board in 2013 and was appointed Chief Executive in September 2014.

After gaining a degree in English and a post-graduate diploma in competition law, Kate worked as a researcher in the House of Commons and European Parliament before joining Whitbread as Government Relations Manager within the Strategic Affairs Department, advising the Board on political matters and M&A activity. Kate was Associate Director at one of the largest independent public affairs companies – heading up the Competition & Consumer Affairs Unit - before establishing her own strategic communications consultancy in 2000.

Kate is a graduate of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Kings College London